at the intersection of business, parenthood, and music

For some reason today was a weird day. It started out with me dragging myself onto the treadmill at 6:00 a.m. Then I sorted through a bunch of email and set up some meetings. I had a good meeting with one of my clients. I even had a good lunch with a potential client. Then it got mixed up in a few ways that illustrate the complexity of us humans and machines as follows:

I called my insurance agent to discuss car and homeowners premiums. Given I’ve had my car almost 11 years and it has over 135K miles on it, I felt like I was paying way too much. I was right and I ended up saving hundreds of dollars per year. I got irritated knowing that if I had called a year ago, I could have saved more money. I hate wasting money. So it was a bittersweet sensation. I hope they are glad that I didn’t call Geico (darn gecko) first!

As I was on the phone with the agent, my Epson printer freaked out and stopped printing. I had the printer 3 1/2 years and it decided to crash today…just as I needed to print and scan back docs to the agent. It was cheaper to buy a new printer than figure out how to get it to San Antonio to fix it. Needless to say, I spent a significant portion of what I was about to save on reduced insurance premiums on a new printer.

I called the cable company a few months ago and discovered I could spend 1/2 of what I was spending on cable & internet and still get basically the same service.

I wonder how much revenue these companies collect because people like me are too busy to call and figure out what the less expensive, still viable options are. What if it was 20 or 30% of their revenue?! That means they are relying on our laziness, busy-ness, and stupidity for a significant portion of their revenue.

I wonder if someone can invent an app that scans all your bills periodically and lets you know if you made this change or took advantage of this new package, you could save hundreds of dollars.

I stopped at Office Depot before and after a happy hour for the Austin Technology Incubator and received $50 credit for my old printer for a trade in on an HP printer that supposedly has more capacity and features. I’ve already set it up and like the scan-to-email feature. Thank goodness for auto setup on devices these days!

Grey’s Anatomy is a very good TV show. Mad Men displays sexism and the male dominated advertising firm life in the 60’s very well, but sometimes I can’t follow their conversations easily.

Matters of the heart, head, and machine are not so easily resolved no matter how hard we try. They all seem to result in the sensation of wanting to punch something or someone or cry when you can’t get them to work like they should.

How do 9 year old boys play 4 games of soccer in one day without falling over. We will soon find out.

I’m thankful I live in the United States where I can create opportunity where none would usually exist as well as buy a new printer on short notice. I’m also thankful that I saved for “rainy days” and live in a place that usually has less rain than other places.

I’m thankful for good health.

I have so many more thoughts, but most are not very useful to the general public just like half of the above aren’t either, but I hope it results in a few of you saving some money.